The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-07-02

Better say prayers. Somethin's wrong
on top. and we're in for it.
at did seem Just then as II something
awful had happened. didn't know
what II was. knowed the water had
come up to shut us of; but how much
further it might come nobody could
know. We all knew the cause of 1t.
We knew that the mine had been flood
ed or the pump had broke. The dia-
mond was going all right though. and
we knew that the force was all right,
and the connection good. The blower
that gave us air was also workin'.
Think of that little blower drivln' air
down to us 1850 feet straight and over
three hundred feet further in the drift
Pretty soon the air that drove the dia-
mond drills stopped. Then we did get
scared. Bill Benthan went down to the
waters edge again and simply said.
She's comm up, boys. Where's the
cold-air pipeP' We cut off the diamond
drill connection, and my God! what a
grateful blast of air. Thank God!
said Bill, the blower is going. Come
up here, boys, and get some breath.
We four sat around the air-pipe, and
our noses chung to it in turn. dare
not tell you what we all talked about.
Nobody expected to 90 out alive. Bill.
the boss, once took a pick and said
he'd smash the brains of two of us If
the other would kill him and then kill
himself. Then Bill suggested that so
long as strength held out we drill on
one Of the unfinished holes, load it with
giant, and all go up in balloon to-
gether. The idea was accepted, and
Jim Allen began to work hand drill.
The rest of us sat there with our noses
to the air-pipe. Pretty soon l heard
click on the pipe. 1t was tap.tap.'
l picked up hammer and hit the pipe
three times. Back came the answer
three taps. l shouted, Boys, they
know we're herer How we yelled and
danced! We huddled around that
air pipe and every ten seconds or so,
'click-click' came the echo of the ham,
mer. We replied. They didn't exactly
know who we were down there, and SO
in the hope that one of us might under
stand telegraph signals they sent
and got an operator from the telegraph
Office, and he banged away with the
signals, but we didn't understand it.
The most joyous sound on earth for
| the hours we were imprisoned
there was the sound of that click click
over the pipe. 1t was simply the
signal OF hope. We did not know
what the trouble was, but that click
click assured us that Superintendent
Boyle was doing all he could Fortu-
nately, we had candles, and were not
IN the darkness. We had some to-
bacco, but could only chew it. Air was
too precious to indulge in smoke. We
did have great tub of ice, and how
we treasured it as il melted! The draft
was insutferably hot, but we kept our
noses to the pipe and breathed the pure
air forced down. We learned after.
ward how excited the whole Pacific
Coast was at our fate. Women came
and kneeled at that little lower engine
and prayed heaven that it would not
break. 1t did not. If it is possible
for man to love piece of machinery
| love that little. brown dish that sent
a current of life giving air to us over
1000 feet. That little engine is run
ming al Tho Alta Mine to-day, and I'll
git off the train at Reno any time to go
over and see it.
well, we were Gagged up there sixty
hours without anything to eat The
ice went in ten hours, so we had to
drink the hot water from the drift.
But we kept banging away at the pipe
with our signals. And all night and
all day those faithful fellows on top
stood and clicked, clicked away to en-
courage u.s."
..What was the cause of the delay"
.They had to send to San Francisco
for machinery to repair the pump.
They sent a special engine, had the
foundry work all night, had the piece
sent up by another special engine. and
after three days of mortal anguish and
simultaneously three days of hope
less entombment quarter of mile be-
4 low the earth's surface-we were res
cued